It was written about in The West and spoken about on radio sports reports. I don't think the Wildcats would of let this story out if Cottons citizenship wasn't close to being confirmed.

Great to possibly have Plumlee back.
It will be a big front line , Adelaide have similar size with Humphries and DJ.

I'm pretty sure it's only been like 12 months since his citizenship application?

I think so, no idea where the three year figure comes from.

Probably been talked about for 3 years, but no application till 12 months ago...

Does anyone else think Plums and Mooney together might clog the paint too much? or are they expecting Mooney to stretch the floor and hit 3's like Kay was doing?

Not sure what people are on about
It was first reported a bit over 13 months ago. It was always going to be relatively straight forward, he has an Australian Spouse and Child, and makes his home in Perth. As per the published stats, he's still well within expectations.

With the start pushed back to January, chances of it coming through in time are promising.

But people are going to freak when Big Plums announces his application.

12 January 2021 is when people i spoke to are expecting to know if they will get citizenship. Their won't be an Australian Day ceremony in person.

Yay. The overrated, overweight, entitled flog is back. His impact until he inevitably gets fouled out early is a something we can look forward to.

Perth are in trouble . How amusing.

"Yay. The overrated, overweight, entitled flog is back."

I didn't realise Bogut had re-signed...

"Plumlee should naturalise." On what basis?

"Not sure what people are on about
It was first reported a bit over 13 months ago. It was always going to be relatively straight forward, he has an Australian Spouse and Child, and makes his home in Perth. As per the published stats, he's still well within expectations."

I don't know about his particular situation, but for context, my wife has been living in Australia for only a few months less than Cotton, has been a permanent resident for over two years of that time, has an Australian spouse and child and is still at least a year away from being allowed to apply for citizenship.

"Cotton has already applied for citizenship so it's safe to assume he's met the permanent residency part of it."

The PR part is actually not that hard to meet, only 12 months. But, according to the immigration website - and confirmed to be the case for us - to apply for citizenship:

At the time you apply you must have been:

- living in Australia on a valid visa for the past 4 years
- a permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen for the past 12 months
- away from Australia for no more than 12 months in total in the past 4 years, including no more than 90 days in total in the past 12 months.

Cotton clearly does not meet this. As he has not been in Australia for 4 years, let alone at the time he applied for citizenship, so he must have received some kind of exception.

I'm not suggesting there is anything shady at all - there's lot of different exemptions that one might qualify for - but this has been fast tracked in some way.

And I've just seen what the exemption likely is, again from the immigration website:

"Special residence requirement
Activities supported by particular organisations
If you want to engage in activities that are supported by particular organisations, such as the Australian Olympic and Paralympics committees, Tennis Australia, Cricket Australia or a federal government agency, then the special residence requirement may apply to you."

My basic understanding is that (unlike in the past??) The Australian Partner & Child doesn't confer automatic entitlement to citizenship,
but it does:
Make it easier to get permanent residency in the first place, which then becomes a factor;
Allows the government to ignore time out of Australia;
Makes it easier to demonstrate the required level of "Close and Continuing Link to Australia."

In regards to Cram's wife, vs Cotton, yes, the requirements for certain categories, including many sports people, is drastically shortened. IIRC its notionally 2 years, but you only have to actually be in Australia for a fraction of that.

NB: I was also mostly joking about Plumlee. Yes, he'd get the same extra considerations that Cotton did, but even with flexibility created by his relationship, he'd be a ways of applying, and he's already 32.
Not saying he won't become a Citizen, who knows, but he'd probably be 35 before it came through LOL.

I suspect if he does return to Perth, it will be because he liked the team, and because he doesn't need a massive payday.

The only way he gets it by season start is if Perth can pull in some favours, as Cram states above it's a lot harder and longer to mere plebs. He'll probably be lucky to get by start of following season if all protocols are followed.

Yeah he would have already received his exemption to be able to apply when he did a year ago. The processing time will be the same for anyone.

They claimed in Overtime that only currently contracted players could train, due to Covid. That doesn't seem plausible, considering how many players were being evaluated. Perth even had Duop Reath training with them.

They also made the interesting point that with Plums already in the country, and "comfortable," it wasn't even mandatory that he be signed before the season starts. Presumably they would need a place-holder in that case, or perhaps promote a DP??

Also stated, truthfully, that there are no guarantees. Others have touched on whether "intervention" was taking place?
As discussed above, 75% of applications are being approved within 15 months. You'd have to assume that the Cats would have used immigration-lawyers appropriately skilled in this process. So if Cotton's Citizenship is approved within the next month or 2, that would place him fairly in that 75%. No string-pulling required, no evidence of favouritism.

The govt website reports a delay between approval and the Citzienship ceremony. I'm not sure at which point Cotton qualifies? But if he were in desperate need of a Ceremony, I'm sure that could be arranged.

I remember Redhage having his ceremony at Challenge Stadium before the game, and someone having to rush the paperwork over to the government to make sure the new import could play that night.

Fcuk yeah championship cruise book it!!!